Will new books be on sale next week?

[phoenixzero23]

Sometimes buying this on print feels more rewarding. Sure digital is easier but you don't technically own anything.
Besides so many people would just pirate this, i don't think going full digital would benefit sales as much as some people think.
Comic shops are needed for the medium to survive

[Tofali]

Some do. But if they shifted to a digital first model, updated marketing plans, etc...things would shift pretty easily. Physical collectors could still get their stuff eventually but saying Marvel and DC need the shops is like saying Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo need Gamestop to survive.

Some is not most and the big two know most of their customers' demand is print they aren't going to make a stupid business decision that goes against their own bottom line.

[spirit2011]

Some is not most and the big two know most of their customers' demand is print they aren't going to make a stupid business decision that goes against their own bottom line.

selling digital wouldn't make a big difference them. readers would just get print after buying digital or just not buying

[Kitty&Piotr<3]

I don't know that the books being out first digitally would make people who still buy regular physical issues for some reason stop buying them.

[Omega Alpha]

I genuinely feel Marvel and DC are both just gonna say **** it and go digital, their gonna get sick of not bringing in money like the rest of the world and do what they want. At least Marvel will Disney has so much money they don't care who they piss off. Either way patience runs out in situations like these.

Yes. This is like not wanting to send your movies Netflix so Blockbuster can remain in business. There is absolutely no reason to do it other than not want to upset Diamond.

[Journey]

I don't know that the books being out first digitally would make people who still buy regular physical issues for some reason stop buying them.

Right like I don't understand the option should just be given until Corona passes no one is forcing the physical lovers to buy it digitally just make it an option and continue as scheduled was my point.

[Snoop Dogg]

I wonder how large swaths of an audience for a medium built around following serialized narratives and collecting would feel about falling behind while the stories continue because they don't want to pay the same prices for objectively less valuable product and can't fill their longboxes with PNGs.

[Omega Alpha]

I wonder how large swaths of an audience for a medium built around following serialized narratives and collecting would feel about falling behind while the stories continue because they don't want to pay the same prices for objectively less valuable product and can't fill their longboxes with PNGs.

Another way to ask the same question: should companies stop making any money for months, having in consequence to have to fire people to cut costs, and standing to lose even more money in the long run because some of the readers just won't come back (in part due to the fact that they have other options for entertainment that are still releasing products), because some people are too stubborn to read anything other than floppies and will react badly at being spoiled?

By the way, having to choose between read digitally or wait months or even more for the books to arrive, risking getting spoiled in the way, is already a choice thousands of readers around the world already have to make. Hell, even people that prefer to wait for the trade deal with the same thing.

[jmc247]

"In fact, prominent retailers have come out publicly against the system, completely opposed to the premise of encouraging their customers to embrace digital, even temporarily, one of the main reasons the proposal has been scrapped."

I'm curious to learn more on what the retailers thought, specifically those that didn't like the idea. From the above sentence, they may seem worried that if readers go digital, they may stay digital?

That is correct.

[H-E-D]

Because they don't really need them? Its not like digital sales wouldn't go up if there was no place to get them physically.

They wouldn't go up in commensurate numbers.

[Tofali]

selling digital wouldn't make a big difference them. readers would just get print after buying digital or just not buying

Yes temporarily during this pandemic getting a digital copy and then getting the print mailed or put aside for the readers can work but it is not a long term solution.

[H-E-D]

I wonder how large swaths of an audience for a medium built around following serialized narratives and collecting would feel about falling behind while the stories continue because they don't want to pay the same prices for objectively less valuable product and can't fill their longboxes with PNGs.

I feel like the ComicHub solution isn't substantially different from when comics have digital redemption codes in them. The order is reversed, sure. But at the very least the cash would be flowing to retailers and not Amazon.

[jmc247]

I feel like the ComicHub solution isn't substantially different from when comics have digital redemption codes in them. The order is reversed, sure. But at the very least the cash would be flowing to retailers and not Amazon.

It is the closest to a win/win solution, though to use game theory the retailers are stuck in a sort of prisoners dilemma either make money now and accept that some of their fans might fall in love with digital or lose money and try to force Marvel and DC to wait until the pandemic is over and hope everyone comes rushing back to the store.

I think Marvel has been reasonable, the retailers need to meet them half way and accept increased digital sales may happen. The retailers are throwing their hopes behind the option/theory this will be over in a month or two and everyone will flood back into the stores and there will be no boost in digital readership.

[Snoop Dogg]

Another way to ask the same question: should companies stop making any money for months, having in consequence to have to fire people to cut costs, and standing to lose even more money in the long run because some of the readers just won't come back (in part due to the fact that they have other options for entertainment that are still releasing products), because some people are too stubborn to read anything other than floppies and will react badly at being spoiled?

By the way, having to choose between read digitally or wait months or even more for the books to arrive, risking getting spoiled in the way, is already a choice thousands of readers around the world already have to make. Hell, even people that prefer to wait for the trade deal with the same thing.

This assumes that no solution to get books to shops is going to be found for several months when the entire situation is in flux and has been rapidly changing, that digital sales will magically start making enough money to make a profit and save jobs when the information we have points to that being unlikely, that those magical digital sales will come from retail customers who will somehow switch to digital en masse even when those would cost them the same amount of money for objectively less value, and that the publishers who are business first should respond to a disruption in their production schedule by creating release two schedules in favor of the minority audience with no proposed solution to line them back up (would digital readers have to endure a hiatus when retail comes back so they can catch up? would digital stay ahead forever? would they have to print all the material they missed and somehow get stores to order it all?) and antagonize their direct customers and partners (the stores who order and buy the books), because some finished X-Men comics are sitting on computers and digital readers, the minority audience, want to read them now. So basically, the business should immediately take the risky, gambling option unlikely to succeed but guaranteed to cause long-term damage in favor of being patient and trying to find a real solution because a single week of comics has been missed and Warren meeting the Hordeculture is just going to kick that much ass.

Honestly? I'm convinced! Let's go digital!

[cranger]

some people are too stubborn to read anything other than floppies and will react badly at being spoiled?

This has been explained and you are just being rude at this point.